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44 MINUTEST OF. 



Oil Natural Grasses. 



=?7 



V. 



pressed, AVhite, marked on each side by two greeniongitudinal lines: the calycine 

 gUimel} especiaJl^n the keel, silky-villose, mutic. Corol-glume solitary, smooth, 

 "e^^jept at the tip of tiie keel, awned at the base; thq awn jointetl, twice as long as 

 the flower, nakied, % 



Jxiis is^an early grass, and very productive. It grows in fields and meadows 

 every where, especially such as are rather moist ; and it is an agreeable grass to 

 cattle. 



III. PoA Pratensis. Smooth Stalked Meadow Grass. 



PoA with diffuse panicle, four-flowered spikelets, lanceolate, five-nerved 

 glumes connected by a villus, and obtuse, abbreviated stipule. 



Perennial, flowering in May and June. 



Root fibrose, with creeping shoots. Stems several, erect, a foot or foot and 

 Jialf high, simple, round, minutely striated, smooth, leafy. Leaves spreading, slight- 

 ly obtKise,- keeled, smooth, a little glaucous. Sheaths of the length of the leaves, 

 striated, smooth. Stipule short, obtuse. Panicle, elongated, upright, very much 

 branched, spreading, smooth. Spikelets ovate, four-flowered, often five-flowered, 

 green, a little inclining to purple. Calycine glumes sharp, rough on the back, ve- 

 ry unequal, three nerved, Floscules rather obtuse, sharply five-nerved, scariose at 

 the tip, rough on the back, connected at the base by innumerous, complicated, 

 very long villi : the interior valves subpubescent oij the margin. 



Variety is distinguished by the very narroAV and stiffish lower leaves, 

 'smaller panicle, roughish, lower sheaths; and abbreviated or blunt stipule, as 

 at a Fig. |t: " 



The] foliage of this most noble grass is early, very abundant and abiding; 

 and it rather affects a dry than a moist situation. This is a very sweet grass, and 

 when»close fed down is very acceptable to sheep, cattle, and horses. 



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